United States Courthouse
Well, I completed my jury service in Federal District Court this past Friday and I did get on a case. I knew I was unlikely to be impanelled for a criminal case – you have to answer questions about your background and I think both sides would be scared of me. “You’d be too much of a loose cannon,” one public defender told me.
But I did get to sit on a weeklong wrongful death case, where I guess both attorneys figured my analytical skills might override their concerns with me asserting myself too strongly in the jury room.
The case involved the family of an eighteen-year-old young man who was killed when he tried to stop his motorbike from hitting a turning semi. The plaintiffs sued for damages, asserting that the truck driver should have seen the young man in his rear-view mirror and taken actions to prevent the accident.
After hearing all of the testimony and examining all of the evidence, the jury found for the defendant, concluding that he had done nothing wrong, had not been negligent, and that the deceased had been reckless in his own behavior and contributed to the tragedy. In sum, we just thought it was a terribly sad event all around.
But the facts of the case turned out not to be as important to me as the jury itself. Our readers know we have often been critical of juries, particularly in some of the cases we presented in Law & Disorder. But fortunately, those are the exceptions.
Basically, no one wants to serve on a jury. It is inconvenient, taxing, takes you away from everyday life, and you know at the end that one side or the other is going to hate you. But I was struck, as I am every time I have served, by the seriousness, commitment, good nature and collective intelligence of this group of ordinary people who had never met each other.
Our jury panel was equally divided between men and women, we had black, white and Asian, and a variety of different backgrounds. Every member brought a different perspective and a different skill, and I can honestly say that the verdict was the work of every one of us in equal measure. There was no rancor, no personal attacks, and everyone expressed an individual opinion and respected and considered every other individual opinion.
Justice is not a perfect system, and juries don’t always get it right. But having been through it again last week, I think jury service may be one of the finest manifestations of ordinary citizens rising to a high moral occasion and bringing out their best qualities in the process.
I thank my fellow jurors. It was an honor to serve with you.
Well said.